wow the athletic looks more and more like the team favored to win the chip this season. yahoo back to being a lottery unit. espn missed out on landing the most coveted FA of this class. nothing really changed for the other teams like theringer, nbcsports, si, sportingnews, etc.

The development team behind the redevelopment of the Southtown public housing complex has unveiled preliminary concepts for the potentially transformative project on Birmingham’s Southside.

Southside Development Co. – a joint venture between Corporate Realty, Bayer Properties, Brasfield & Gorrie, A.G. Gaston Construction, SPM Property Management, BREC Development, Gensler, and Atlanta-based Benoit Group–discussed its conceptual development plan for a redevelopment of the Southtown public housing site located at the corner of University Boulevard and the Red Mountain Expressway. The plans were presented at the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District’s board of directors meeting on Monday.

Presenters stressed that the plans are in the early stages and are subject to change with input from residents and all other stakeholders.

Carol Clarke with Corporate Realty said the phrase “People First,” has become prevalent in the team’s planning process. She said planning sessions, an advisory panel and open house events with residents and others helped inform the development plans so far.

Autumn Brasher with Gensler presented three conceptual options for the redevelopment.

The first option includes densified residential space, retail space, two hotels – including one extended stay option – and professional services office space. The second option included many of the same components but also added medical office space, since the property is near St. Vincent’s as well as the Birmingham VA Annex. The third option moved the retail space into the interior of the community near the residential space.

Brasher said there are no plans for standalone retail space, but that it will all be integrated into other buildings.

Most of the concepts created a buffer of sorts between University Boulevard and the actual residential housing so the redevelopment has a community feel. All of the concepts also included green spaces and plazas to encourage interaction. Ponds and water features are also included to retain rain water on the property.

From a streetscape perspective, preliminary plans include ways to slow traffic on 24th Street South so people won’t use it as a cut-through, and for extending Magnolia Avenue into the community as a better connection to Five Points South.

At the meeting, concerns were raised regarding how renewable energy will be integrated into the development, as well as how developers will make sure of minority contractor participation. Commissioner Cardell Davis said he will not approve a final development plan that does not address the minority contractor issue, as well as how to hire current Southtown residents to jobs in the project. He suggested bringing each of the entities that make up Southside Development Co. come before the commission to make sure all are on the same page.

More meetings and input are expected in coming weeks before a final master plan is decided on.

A final master plan for Southtown is expected in September of this year, with rezoning to follow in January of 2019. Residents would be relocated between July and October of 2019, and the ground lease for the project would happen in October 2019.

HABD CEO Michael Lundy said so far about half of the current residents have expressed interest in returning to a redeveloped Southtown, and that the HABD is dedicated to helping them do so.

HABD first announced plans to redevelop Southtown in 2015. CEO Michael Lundy previously told the BBJ that his vision includes redeveloping physical real estate to blend seamlessly into communities, while also working with residents on plans to “move up and out” of public housing.

I have lived in the suburbs my entire life and had no idea some of these places existed. A coworker from out of state had to tell me that we have a chocolate shop here! This is part of the problem with Birmingham, we don’t do a very good job of selling our better side.